___Chapter 56___

~~~NOTE- music listened to while writing this chapter- Radiohead's "Ok Computer" ~~~

"Yo, Tien!"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I was wondering.... you ever kissed a girl?"

"*stares* What kind of question is THAT?"

"Dunno, just wondering."

"Yumcha, you were at our wedding, that's not a question you should need to ask."

"Oh *slaps himself* silly me."

"Is that all?"

"No wait, got another question- so how's your 'life', anyways?"

"Huh?"

"*coughs* Your 'life'."

"My life? What about it?"

"Nah, you don't get what I'm saying, so it probably sucks."

"You've really lost me, Yumcha. What do you mean by my 'life'? Oh, wait, block down. OOMPH!"

*thunk*

"Thanks guys!"

"*both* Welcome, Goku!"

They watched Son carry off the next piece of masonry, but instead of running off to get the next, Tien just glanced back to Yumcha.

"What were you saying again"

"Um...... Well, it's like this... *whispers something into his ear* "

::Silence::

"YOU SICK BASTARD!!! *backhands him soundly* How can you even ASK me something like that???"

".... *pulls himself up on his elbows, mutters with a smirk* I guess that means the answer is 'no'?"

"AAAHH!!!"

---

He was getting closer, he knew it. This was definitely the direction it'd come from, his fellow namekian's shout, and if it wasn't....

{{In that case, I would be soo screwed......}} he murmured mentally, ignoring the signals shooting up his legs telling him to slow down. Neru wasn't gonna stop now, when something might finally be happening....

---

Another bright day. Lute kicked his feet slightly, the back of his heels connecting with the roof of the hollow capsule house to make a 'ting' sound with each tap. Gohan was eating breakfast, his mom was off by herself to think, and Vegeta hadn't come back from cleaning off yet.

At the thought of Vegeta, his lip pouted slightly. He hadn't been very nice to him lately... Lute, not one to hold a grudge, brushed it off as a bad mood and leaned backward onto the top of the roof, further away from the curved edge so he wouldn't fall off. {{Everyone's entitled to a few mood swings.}} the namekisan-jin child thought to himself, smirking slightly. {{ Hell, 'Pops was notorious for those....}}

His mind was drawn of the subject, though, when someone called out his name from below. Lute cocked an eyeridge, and sat up to see the halfling waving him down.

"I'm gonna put the capsule away, time to get off!"

" *blinks* What would happen if I didn't?"

"I dunno, never tried it before. *plays the capsule between his fingers* You wanna be the first to find out, Lute-chan?"

"NO WAY!!"

Gohan looked at the little one's face and laughed heartily, and once he could compose himself enough to speak, finished with "Then get down, silly!"

Lute obliged, and popped the capsule into his backpack along with all the others. He glanced up, one of his antennae perking at an angle as he asked "So, what now?"

Gohan took a seat on the ground, and shrugged. "Gotta wait till your mom and Vegeta get back."

"Ok."

A few minutes passed, and Gohan felt someone tug on the leg of his gi. Lute was staring up at him, face quiet. "What is it, little guy?"

He wasn't answered immediately, but Lute stared down at his feet and muttered "So, you knew my dad?"

".... Yeah."

"How so? You said something about being trained by him a while ago, but you seem fonder of him than that."

Gohan sighed, patting the kid on the head and saying in a quiet voice "He means alot of things to me. He's not just my sensei, he's a best friend and second father, al- no, not almost, is. *breathes in deeply, closing eyes for a second* Though we're not as good friends as we used to be.... Meeting Videl has made my life so complicated...."

"*blinks* Dad doesn't like her."

"I know, I've seen those two together. They can't stand each other's presence... though I think she likes your mom."

"Yup."

"So, how have your parents been doing? I haven't seen them together in ages..."

"Just 'cause you haven't seen them. I guess they've been doing alright, I still don't understand alot of this stuff, I'm only six."

Gohan blinked, and looked back down at him. "You sure don't look it."

"I know, mom tells me that all the time. *grins* It's funny you should say that, me looking big when I'm actually short..."

The conversation got cut off there, though, because Vegeta came waltzing back in, trying to still look princely, though it'd take him quite some time for that hair to grow back in. The two greeted him, Vegeta merely replied with a grunt and set upon the food.

---

New Nameksei was quiet again, it's three suns beating down on it with mercy for once, though that was supplied by the clouds and breeze. Within that all, it still seemed quite like it's counterpart.

"Our mother..." Oboe whispered quietly, reciting a line Saichro'd taught her from an ancient poem about how her people had come to be. Nameksei herself had been their mother, and all her children were the people of a single being, who had no name. Every namekisan-jin was born with a love of their homeworld, but Old Nameksei was no more.

That'd left a hole in her soul for a long time. And when she'd first seen Piccolo..... her heart had leapt, thinking he was Damaiou, alive again. Thinking she wouldn't be alone, have to bear this emptiness anymore...

"Funny how the world works," she mused, head leant on her hand, "You look for one thing, but find another, of equal or greater value. *chuckles slightly* "

Oboe was seated in her valley again, on 'Damaiou's' side of the tree, letting her back lean against the rough old bark and twining her fingers in the silky grass, her childhood surrounding her again. There, in the far corner, was the hole in the 'wall' where she'd crawl through every day and wait for Palidor-chan to come late so she could tease him, about three feet from that was where they'd all sat and stargazed so many times, directly above her was the bough where her little aeco once leapt off to surprise Damaiou, and a quick glance away was that one tree limb, where her brother sat/hung from/jumped off daily. Jokingly, she glanced over to the spot where he'd left an indent on the old trunk when he missed his target...... Her thoughts suddenly stopped dead in their tracks

No way...

---

Oboe rushed over to the wood, eyes wide, staring at a particular length of trunk. Her hands were quivering, trembling, shaking violently. It wasn't possible...

First, the orbital view. Then Saichro's tower, where Katass had lived, Ratal-san's island, the shore she'd trained on, where she and Damaiou started a dinosaur stamped with Palidor that one day, all the other locations she'd recognized. Then the valley, the tree, the very aura of the planet, the smell and feel of the air, and the adjica. Now this.....

She pulled away very slowly, wide eyes open, from the rough indent of a foot against the bark. Her eyes shot upward, surveying the nail-scratches on the branch above her head, and a thousand other details that wouldn't have been noticeable if you weren't looking for them.

What in the world was going on?

Oboe couldn't take it anymore and fled quickly, leaving behind a flush of sparkles that had escaped her eyes.

---

She sighed deeply, stopping for a minute's rest in the middle of everything she was doing. Ignoring the fact that her hair was starting to almost plaster against her forehead, Bulma sighed, and plopped down. They'd been working for almost two weeks... or maybe it was more, she'd lost track.

Her attention was drawn up when Tien and Yumcha raced by, chattering on still, because the sake' hadn't quite worn off yet... The blue haired woman chuckled to herself on that thought, and murmured aloud "Only god knows what they're saying..." and laid down on her back for some quick shut-eye.

That didn't happen, though, because as soon as she closed her eyes two little shapes shot over and began chanting "Get up, get up, get up! Time's a wasting!!!" with obvious pleasure in their voices.

Bulma gritted her teeth and snapped one eye open, identifying the culprits as her son and Goku's kid, telling her the same thing she'd yelled at them whenever they sat still too long. A moan of aggravation escaped her lips, and she pulled herself up, glancing to the child sitting nearby who didn't seem to be enjoying this as much and asking "Can't you make them stop?"

Dende just shrugged and replied "I told them not to, but they don't have to listen to me."

"You're the older one... *pulls up, rubbing her tired back* At least you could try to keep them in line."

"Actually, they wanted to throw grease on you at first, but I convinced them this would be more practical."

"WHAT????"

"DENDE!!! You promised you wouldn't tell!"

"*chuckles* Now did I?"

"I'M GONNA KILL YOU TWO LITTLE FREAKS!!!!"

"EEEEKKKKKK!!!!!!"

---

{{Still no sign of him.....}} Neru thought to himself, narrowing his eyes and trying to focus on his 'twin's chi, before remembering he was dead, he didn't have one, and smacking himself upside the head for that oversight.

He'd lost track of him.

Great.

The namekisan-jin man then dropped to one of his last resorts- "YO, PICCOLO!!! WHERE ARE YOU????"

Neru stopped then, straining his ears for any sound, and upon getting no answer, sighed.

Then he heard it- a faint reply. Or he thought it was a reply... Uncertain, he took to the 'air' again, following the sound...

---

"Why'd you two stop all of a sudden?"

"Stop what?"

"Talking, you and the kid. You were talking, then you stopped."

"Nothing, Vegeta, we were just talking about... *sighs* "

".....Oh." The sayian-jin's voice went a bit quiet at that point, and he put away the last empty hoi-poi capsule, before sitting down by himself and closing his eyes.

{{So, he still remembers you, even with that girl hovering around him so much... Goddamnit namek, why'd you have to go get yourself ****ing killed?? I was suppose to bug the hell out of you when the woman showed up with the kid, and everyone else would be gawking, but I'd just be laughing, because now you'd know what it's like to have one of those wonderful little pains-in-the-asses toting along after you..... Instead you go and get yourself killed....}}

Vegeta sighed quietly at that point, and was about to smoothen his hair back when he remembered it wasn't there, and narrowed his eyes, cursing quietly in sayian-go. He stared back up at the green sky, and remembered the exchange they'd had all those years ago somewhere on this dust ball-

"Hey, aren't you the one we killed so easily back then? What do you hope to do now?"

"Shutup, ok? After I finish Freezer, It'll be you and me, alright?"

"Sure. Whatever you say, namek."

He chuckled slightly, covering his face with a hand, staring out between his fingers, and whispered "Pic, you owe me big time for this one..... We never did get to have that spar..." but his voice didn't have it's usual conviction. Unbeknownst to Vegeta, something sparkled in his right eye, but was wiped away by his glove when he pulled it away from his face, and walked back to the others.

"Now, where the hell is that woman?"


~~~NOTE- I quoted from the show in here, but it's not exact, since I haven't seen that eppy in a while, so gomen on that. And if you don't know what Yumcha's talking about in the opening... *sweatdrops* It's a sick little joke, but I couldn't help but plop it in there when if came in my head. ~~~